Opinion: Helping Girmitiyas Find Their Roots — Modi’s Call To Document History Could Heal Old Wounds
Few in India today know of their family ties to former European colonies where their ancestors worked under indenture for decades, after being coerced — or misled — to cross the treacherous ‘kalapani (black waters)’ in months-long voyages. The labourers were promised free passage back home once their contracts were completed, but only about a third ever returned.
Others stayed on, and now form a part of the giant Indian diaspora, but their attempts to reclaim their legacy in earnest have been defeated by poor archiving of ancestral migration documents. This author traces lineage to the ‘Girmitiyas’ — as these indentured labourers have come to be known — from both parents, but two visits made to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have yielded no clues about his roots and the families his ancestors left behind over a century ago.
That’s why it more than struck a chord when PM Narendra Modi, addressing the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2025 last month, talked about the need to create a “database of our Girmitiya community” and identify the “villages and cities in India they came from, where they went and settled, and also recognise those places”. “What kind of life they led, how they turned challenges into opportunities — this can be portrayed through films or documentaries. A study on the Girmitiya legacy could be conducted, and research could be carried out,” he added, and talked about organising “the World Girmitiya Conference at regular intervals”.
The Prime Minister’s acknowledgement of the Girmitiyas is historically unprecedented. Attempts to reconnect the fragmented history of nearly 50 million Indians and 1.5 million Girmitiya descendants worldwide have been long overdue. Bridging this historical divide is essential to restoring a sense of unity among the Girmitiya diaspora.
Also overdue are reparations for the devastating human cost of colonialism. The indentured labour system damaged Indian communities globally, and claims for human rights violations must be pursued. Scholars argue that indentured labour should be recognised as a crime against humanity — diplomat Bhaswati Mukherjee noted in 2023 that indenture and slavery were merely “two faces of the same colonial coin”.
Punishing Labour
Indentured labour was a system of unfree labour employed by colonial powers in their territories. A key characteristic of this system was the penal sanction, which meant that breaches of contract were governed by criminal rather than civil law. The book ‘Indentured Labour in the Age of Imperialism, 1834-1922’ by historian David Northrup examines the migration of Indian indentured labourers to various European colonies.
Between 1833 and 1920, an estimated 1.2 million indentured labourers were transported from India to European colonies across three continents — Asia, Africa and South America, according to Northrup. This coincided with the abolition of slavery in Britain (1833), France (1848), and the Netherlands (1863).
While agreements, or treaties, governed their work arrangements, their treatment on colonial plantations was often brutal, with rules regularly violated without consequences. The Girmitiyas recognised these injustices, giving rise to their name — derived from their struggle to pronounce the English word ‘agreement’.
Life Marked By Indenture
My paternal grandfather, Girmitiya Kishundayalsing Harnandan Sing (Adja), belonged to village Nawada in Bihar’s Saran district. He left India from Kolkata on 14 September 1896 aboard the Hereford IV, and arrived in Suriname capital Paramaribo on December 17, 1896. His contract was to last from December 17, 1896, to December 17, 1901.
He was aged 20, and unmarried at the time. A medical examination determined he was in sound health. Years of unprotected labour in unventilated conditions, however, exposed Adja to fine dust from boiling sugarcane syrup, leading to severe chronic respiratory disease (CARA). By the end of his contract, he was too frail to return to India and struggled to find a wife. At 40, he met Thakur Lalji Singh, who had fled British Guiana in disguise with his wife and 16-year-old granddaughter, Manki, to avoid British sanctions for desertion. Unable to return to India, Lalji Singh married Manki to Adja. Despite his failing health, Adja fathered two sons, determined to continue his Thakur Kul lineage.
He passed away in the arms of my grandmother, Manki, when their youngest son, Ramdath — my father — was just six months old.
A Legacy Of Success
The migration history of my mother’s ancestors is a story of perseverance and success. Baba Sheomber Ganesh and Adjia Bhumattia Bhagwandee, both Barhai by caste and around 20 years old, left Kolkata in 1895 aboard the Gracian II, bound for Paramaribo. Their first meeting onboard blossomed into a romance, and neither had plans to return home. At their request, they were assigned to the same plantation in Commewijne. Their discipline and determination were remarkable — only after completing their five-year contract did they use their savings to buy a small farm and marry in 1901. By 1903, they had three sons, the second of whom, Ramsewak Ganesh, became my maternal grandfather. Years later, they passed away on their land at Bombay in Suriname’s Saramacca rice district.
ALSO READ | From China To Sri Lanka, Indian Diaspora Celebrates 76th Republic Day
Search For Roots
I owe my birth in Suriname to these genealogical unions rooted in Bihar’s migration legacy of the late 19th century.
I was born in Suriname in 1944, and have made two visits to India — in 1995 and 2023 — to conduct a lineage search in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. However, gaps in local archiving frustrated my effort. Solutions will have to be found for this, so that the millions of Girmitiya descendants and their families can find each other again.
Born in Suriname and based in the Netherlands, Dr Shardhanand Harinandansingh is an author and columnist covering social and medical issues while actively engaging in Girmitiya affairs and preventive healthcare.
[Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs, and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs, and views of ABP Network Pvt. Ltd.]
Trending News
